


Careful, or you'll end up in my novel.

by kaige68



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Community: 1_million_words, M/M, Symmetrina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-02
Updated: 2013-02-02
Packaged: 2017-11-27 22:12:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/667050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaige68/pseuds/kaige68
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Former Newark police detective, now mystery, writer Danny Williams follows his daughter to Hawaii, and meets his biggest fan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meet the owner

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first symmetrina and my first AU. That said some thanks are due.  
> 1) Landrews left a comment on another fic I wrote asking if I’d ever tried writing a symmetrina. I had not, and so became obsessed with writing one.  
> 2) Willow_fae_20 held an AU prompt fest, and qixy suggested _( work at bookstore，big fan of Danny) Steve/novelist Danny_. Immediately this was the way to go with the form I wanted to use.  
>  3) As EVER – bits and pieces were e-mailed to Haldoor who perpetually tells me I’m awesome and amazing. Without her, *sigh* I would not be anywhere near as awesome or amazing as she thinks I am.  
> 4) Beta kudos to Tkeyla, who is awesome and amazing in her own right. Any mistakes still contained herein (including the possible misunderstanding of what a symmetrina is supposed to be) are entirely due to my stubbornness.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own it, I'm just playing in someone else's pool.

My dad was always a cop first, but second, he was a mystery novel junkie. I listened as he read pulp with the same joy that he read Conan Doyle. It was magic to him, and that belief is genetic.

This bookstore was my father’s dream. After a career as a detective with the Honolulu Police, he retired and opened _Key Witness_. He worked hard, with a lot of dedication, and made it the best mystery shop in the islands.

When Dad passed on in 2010, I left the Navy to run the place. 

I could not be more proud.


	2. Vulpine, by Danny Williams

It’s been a really horrible day. You just want to sit on your couch, open a beer, and catch the tail end of the game. Any game. 

But that’s just not going to happen.

When your captain called you an hour ago, two hours after his boss had suspended you while they investigate your ass for _excessive force_ , he asked you to take a look at the information and see if it looked the same to you as it did to him.

And damn if you don’t see what he sees. Renaud is back, and you can’t even go to the crime scene. You never got close enough two years ago. And now there’s another body. She’s young, a red head, wearing her gym clothes, no sneakers. You don’t need to see the pictures attached to the e-mail to know the blood cast-off is like a Pollack painting. You don’t need to check her history to know she’s single, administrative assistant, grad school.

You’d bet your next paycheck that there will be a new body inside of 24 hours. That's is your ex-wife wasn’t already taking it all from you, or if you were even getting one through your suspension.


	3. Judging by the cover

Danny followed along as Grace pulled him to the correct shelf. He knew what was coming, it thrilled a part of him, that his daughter was so proud of him. Danny felt like a failure from time to time, for letting his marriage crash and burn. Then Grace would haul him into a bookstore and loudly whisper “Look Danno, they have your book!” Someone was always close by and Danny always blushed. 

Tall, dark, and handsome looked over at them, smiled slightly, nodded. He began to turn away, lifted the books in his hands toward a shelf, then seemed to rethink turning away. He smiled brighter, put the books back on the weird v-shaped-book-cart-thing. “It’s a great book!” He spoke directly to Danny’s daughter. “One of the better books I’ve read. It was on our best-seller list for months.”

Danny blushed a bit more and opened his mouth to talk but was interrupted.

“Not again!” A woman’s voice rang from further back in the store. “You pushed that book on every one that came in the store for 6 months, Steve. And you only read it in the first place because you thought the guy on the jacket was hot.” A tall thin woman walked by them pushing another cart, never looking at them, just shaking her head.

TD&H grimaced slightly then offered his hand. “That was Kono, and I’m Steve.” Danny chuckled and shook Steve’s hand. “You’re Danny.” He gestured vaguely then turned to Grace. “And you would be?”

“Grace.” She reached out for a hand shake as well. “But Danno calls me Monkey sometimes.”

“It’s very nice to meet you Grace. What brings you to Oahu?” He turned to Danny. “You’re not on a signing tour, are you?”

“No,” Grace answered before Danny could. “Stan got a job here, so we all moved from New Jersey.”

“Stan?” Danny smiled at that, amazed that Steve could sound both disappointed and hopeful at the same time.

Danny finally broke into the conversation. “Step-Stan married my ex.”

“And you moved with them?” Steve’s eyes strained, like he was getting a bad headache, almost an aneurysm.

“I followed my daughter? I love this face!” Danny pinched Grace’s cheek.

Steve crossed his arms, looked more… suggestively at Danny. “Come do a signing.” 

Danny looked at his book, the cover, the only cover it ever had was a badge. Danny’s picture on the back.


	4. The plot thickens.

Danny stood across the street from the bookstore. It was more crowded than he’d seen it the handful of times he’d been there since he’d met Steve. He liked the store; the staff was friendly and genuinely enjoyed reading. But he was scowling at it on signing day. The crowded store with a giant picture of him in the window, scrawled across the bottom was the word TODAY with a very excited exclamation point.

His phone beeped with the sound of a text message. **_Why do you look angry? This is a great turn out!_** Danny read the message then looked up. Sure enough, Steve was standing a few windows over from Danny’s giant head. Danny adjusted the messenger bag on his shoulder and made to cross the street, when he got another text. **_Back door, I’ll meet you, crowd’s too big._** He watched Steve gesture, and Danny walked around the block to the employee entrance.

“Is this great or what?”

“Or what.” Steve held the door open with his body as Danny answered, not moving, forcing Danny into brushing against him in order to get into the building.

“Are you crazy?” The door closed, and with the sunlight gone, Danny stayed still until his eyes could adjust to the dim stock room. Steve brushed against him as he passed. “This is amazing. It’s a lot of people back instead of new sales, but it’s still great. “ Steve was grinning, big, goofy, and ear to ear.

Danny put his bag down on an empty table. “I talked to my publisher. You really have been selling the hell out of it, haven’t you? They said you had the biggest sales in the state.” 

Steve’s cheeks pinked a bit. “I’m also the biggest mystery shop in the state. _And_ it’s a great first book.” He gestured to the swinging doors. “I’ve got to get some shelves moved to make space for all the people. Can I have someone bring you something?”

“Coffee?”

“Sure. Just hang out back here. We’ve taken all the chairs already, sorry. Oh, yeah, I wanted to ask you what you want to do today. Reading, some Q&A, and then let people trickle through the line for signatures? “ Steve hovered near the doors.

“Sounds fine.” 

“Great! I’ll make sure the questions don’t go on too long, and Kono is really good at hustling people through a line. See you out there.” And he was gone.

Feeling like it was a hundred hours later, Danny was exhausted. A man named Chin had hustled him back into the stock room and sat him in a chair that had made it back to the table in the break area. There was a stack of boxes of his book. Danny eyed them evilly once he was alone, but it was part of program, he’d sign the books for Steve to keep on hand. He pulled out his pen and flexed his cramping hand.

One door swung in and revealed Steve still smiling like a goof. He looked Danny over and the look on his face turned to something more caring. “Leave them for now; come back when you have feeling in your fingers again. Maybe stop by when I have a request for a signed book?” 

Danny nodded, grateful.

Another chair unfolded and Steve sat down across the table. “You really don’t know what you’re writing next?”

“I know what the mystery is.” Danny rubbed at the back of his neck. His next book had been the subject of a lot of the questions. “I just don’t know that I want to use the same protagonist. Writing this kept me sane through my divorce. I don’t…” Danny trailed off and shrugged. It was a much more honest answer than he’d given his _fans_ , and he hoped Steve would recognized that.

“I like him,” Steve leaned forward, arms across the table. “He’s flawed and redeemable. You open to suggestions?”

Danny met his eyes warily. “Okay, hit me.”

“Maybe move him here, to Hawai’i.” Danny snorted. “Hear me out. Move him out here, get him a partner, I don’t know, maybe some kind of task force he gets sucked into slightly against his will. Have him be the rational partner to a Navy SEAL out solving some of the bigger crimes on the islands.”

“And why would he come to Hawaii?”

Steve smiled. “Because his ex-wife moved here with their son, and he’s such a devoted dad he followed them.”

“I can’t write a romance with this SEAL.”

“No.” One side of Steve’s mouth quirked up. “But bromance is enough to keep the slashers happy, and slight enough not to freak out the straight boys.”

Danny thought for a moment. Then asked another question. “Mary-Sue, will you have dinner with me tomorrow night?”


	5. Skip to the end.

“Have you thought about moving Kerns to Hawai’i?” Steve propped himself up on one arm watching over Danny as he came back to earth. Hand spreading out on Danny’s stomach, thumb stroking lightly.  
“Did you come back here, and give me the best blow job of my life, just to worm your way into a book?” 

Steve arched a brow, “Would it work?”

“What do you think of _Steve the street hustler_?” 

Steve hadn’t expected anything other than a smart ass remark, and he could give it back. “I prefer _rent boy_.”

“Let me get this,” Danny began gesturing with one hand. “To keep you in my bed, I not only have to transplant him to Hawaii, but now I have to make it a Victorian mystery too? That is pushing it, Babe.”

Steve reached out, snagged the hand, pushing his fingers between Danny’s and tugging it toward him. He knew his face was giving away just how love-struck he was feeling. 

“Look at you.” Danny’s tone seemed fond. “One furtive hand job and you’re putty.”

Steve kissed Danny. Quick and light. He didn’t pull back far, held tightly to Danny’s hand. “ _Best_ blow job?” Danny just nodded at him, smile wide. “You haven’t seen anything. Yet.”

Danny pulled Steve back in for another kiss. This one slow, lingering.

“When you’re _up_ for it, you’ll see _best_.” Steve licked Danny’s jaw.

Danny pulled his hand free. “No.” He bracketed Steve’s head with his palms and plundered his mouth. “No.” Danny rolled them onto Steve’s back. “When I’m _up_ , I want to fuck you. Long and slow.”

Steve’s pulse sped up at Danny’s words and actions; at the hot heavy feel of Danny’s body. Steve groaned, let his hands roam Danny.

“Since that first day. That smile.” Danny’s fingers traveled down Steve’s side, to reach and pull Steve’s knee up, settling himself between Steve’s legs. “Before you recognized me.” Danny bit Steve’s shoulder. “And then when you did, when Kono said that.” Steve felt Danny’s tongue tracing where his teeth had been. “It was amazing I didn’t jump you.”

“You should have.” 

Danny caught Steve’s eyes. “Remember Grace? Customers?”

“Oh yeah.” Steve smiled.

Danny paused, serious. “Do you have anyone you should get home to tonight? Dog, cat, fichus?”

“Chin’s got the store tomorrow. Mind if I stay?”

“I’d be pissed if you didn’t. Even if it means Victorian rent-boy mystery.”


	6. Phocine, by Danny Williams

It got worse. Oh, did it ever.

When your ex finally remarried, you thought it was an end to that monthly alimony check, only now she’s taken your son and moved to a pineapple infested hellhole. The cost of living is through the roof, everyone surfs, no one is on time, and they put fruit on pizza.

You got the transfer to the Honolulu PD, where everyone calls you a _Haole_ , treats you like an outsider, and no one dresses like a detective. You could have lived with that, you could have; only now you’ve been shanghaied onto the governor’s special task force by some crazy Navy SEAL who is telling you that you’re his partner now.

The man keeps grenades in the trunk of your car!

He knows nothing of procedure, or civil rights apparently. He got you shot within hours of meeting him, and if he calls you _Buddy_ one more time you’re going to punch him. Again.

The thing is, though, he’s a good guy. His father was murdered. He blames himself and probably vowed revenge before joining the task force. Now your partner’s got full immunity, while you’ve got his back and a murder to solve.


	7. Meet the owners

This bookstore was my father’s dream. After a career as a detective with the Honolulu Police, he retired and opened _Key Witness_ , working hard to make it the best mystery shop in the islands. Pulp or classics, they were all magic to my dad, and I miss him every day.

I left the Navy to come back home to this incredible place. Now _Key Witness_ belongs to me and Danny. Most days find him tucked in a corner, writing and rewriting his next best seller, while I’m up front living the dream surrounded by the best staff, books, and family.


End file.
